Your Chinese Zodiac Animal Book Recommendations
This Lunar New Year, find your book recommendations based on your zodiac sign. Whether you were born the Year of the Tiger or the Monkey, we’ve got you covered!
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Add to BookshelfYear of the Tiger -> Bestiary
by K-Ming Chang
You’re brave and sometimes misunderstood, fighting for causes that are near to your heart! In Bestiary, Mother tells Daughter a story about a tiger spirit who lived in a woman’s body. She was called Hu Gu Po, and she hungered to eat children, especially their toes. Soon afterward, Daughter awakes with a tiger tail. And more mysterious events follow… All the while, Daughter is falling for Ben, a neighborhood girl with strange powers of her own. As the two young lovers translate the grandmother’s letters, Daughter begins to understand that each woman in her family embodies a myth—and that she will have to bring her family’s secrets to light in order to change their destiny.
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2
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Year of the Rabbit -> The Bride Test
by Helen Hoang
You’re responsible, always elegant, and make everyone’s day with your kindness, just like Esme Tran in The Bride Test! As a mixed-race girl living in Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place. When the opportunity arises to come to America and meet a potential husband, she can’t turn it down, thinking this could be the break her family needs. Seducing Khai, however, doesn’t go as planned. She’s hopelessly smitten with a man who’s convinced he can never return her affection. But with Esme’s time in the United States dwindling, Khai is forced to understand he’s been wrong all along…
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3
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Year of the Dragon -> The Woman Warrior
by Maxine Hong Kingston
If you were born in the Year of the Dragon, you’re confident and intelligent with a deep passion for life. As a girl, Maxine Hong Kingston lived in two confounding worlds: the California to which her parents have immigrated and the China of her mother’s “talk stories.” The fierce and wily women warriors of her mother’s tales clash jarringly with the harsh reality of female oppression out of which they come. Kingston’s sense of self emerges in the mystifying gaps in these stories, which she learns to fill with stories of her own.
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4
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Year of the Snake -> Bangkok Wakes to Rain
by Pitchaya Sudbanthad
Snakes are wise beyond their years and aware of the world around them, constantly engaging their senses. Those born in these years are looking to give and receive unconditional love. We recommend Bangkok Wakes to Rain, an immersive sweeping epic. Time collapses as these lives collide and converge, linked by the forces voraciously making and remaking the amphibious, ever-morphing capital itself. Bangkok Wakes to Rain is an elegy for what time erases and a love song to all that persists into the unknowable future.
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5
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Year of the Horse -> Delayed Rays of a Star
by Amanda Lee Koe
If you were born in the Year of the Horse, you are most likely known by your friends as independent, energetic, and a natural leader! At a chance encounter in 1928, three very different women are photographed together in one frame: up-and-coming German actress Marlene Dietrich, who would wend her way into Hollywood as one of its lasting icons; Anna May Wong, the world’s first Chinese American star; and Leni Riefenstahl, whose work as a director of propaganda art films would first make her famous–then, infamous. Delayed Rays of a Star follows the setbacks and triumphs of these groundbreaking women.
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$16.95Buy from Other Retailers:
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6
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Year of the Goat -> Frankly in Love
by David Yoon
You are calm, thoughtful, and empathetic, and you handle conflicts with a quiet strength and determination. We recommend Frankly in Love, a story about a protagonist with many of these same traits. As Frank falls in love for the very first time, he’s forced to confront the fact that while his parents sacrificed everything to raise him in the land of opportunity, their traditional expectations don’t leave a lot of room for him to be a regular American teen. In this moving debut novel, David Yoon takes on the question of who am I? with a result that is humorous, heartfelt, and ultimately unforgettable.
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7
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Year of the Monkey -> Black Water Sister
by Zen Cho
You’re smart and curious about the world around you, and always with a sense of humor in any situation. We recommend reading Black Water Sister, about a young woman who starts hearing a voice in her head. Closeted, broke, and jobless, she’s moving back to Malaysia with her parents. Jessamyn Teoh soon learns the new voice isn’t even hers, it’s the ghost of her estranged grandmother. In life, Ah Ma was a spirit medium, avatar of a mysterious deity called the Black Water Sister. Now she’s determined to settle a score against a business magnate who has offended the god—and she’s decided Jess is going to help her do it, whether Jess wants to or not.
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8
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Year of the Rooster -> Patron Saints of Nothing
by Randy Ribay
You’re wise, honest, and open to new experiences! We recommend Patron Saints of Nothing, about a Filipino-American teenager who uncovers the truth about his cousin. When his cousin is murdered as part of President Duterte’s war on drugs, and no one in the family wants to talk about what happened, Jay travels to the Philippines to find out the real story. Jay is forced to reckon with the many sides of his cousin before he can face the whole horrible truth — and the part he played in it.
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9
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Year of the Dog -> On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
by Ocean Vuong
You are loyal and faithful to your friends and family, and you often put the needs of others above yourself! If you haven’t already read this bestselling novel, it is time to pick up On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation.
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10
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Year of the Pig -> Exhalation
by Ted Chiang
You’re kind and generous to your friends, and you’re thoughtful in how you see the world around you. If you’re looking for a collection of stories that are filled with empathy and awe, we recommend Exhalation by Ted Chiang. In these nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories, he tackles some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine.
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11
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Year of the Rat -> Interior Chinatown
by Charles Yu
You’re creative and always looking for your next opportunity. Interior Chinatown is the perfect book for you! Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as a protagonist even in his own life: He’s merely regulated to stereotypical and racist acting bits. With help from his ever encouraging mother, Willis slowly learns to escape these harmful roles both in his job and his life. Playful but heartfelt, a send-up of Hollywood tropes and Asian stereotypes, Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu’s most moving, daring, and masterly novel yet.
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12
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Year of the Ox -> To Live
by Yu Hua
You’re diligent and dependable, but most importantly you’re determined to live a life true to your convictions! Pick up To Live, a celebrated contemporary classic of Chinese literature which was also adapted for film by Zhang Yimou. This searing novel portrays one man’s transformation from the spoiled son of a landlord to a kindhearted peasant. Left with an ox as the companion of his final years, Fugui stands as a model of gritty authenticity, buoyed by his appreciation for life in this narrative of humbling power.
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